Meaning & use
stim
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableinformal
A repeated movement, sound or action, such as hand flapping or rocking, that a person uses to manage feelings or sensations, especially in autism.
Grammar: A countable noun: one stim, several stims.
Patterns
- a stim for something
- a favorite stim
Rocking back and forth is her favorite stim when she feels nervous.
He uses a small fidget toy as a quiet stim during class.
Some stims, such as humming, are barely noticed by others.
verbintransitiveinformal
To repeat a movement or sound in order to soothe yourself, focus or express strong feeling.
Grammar: No object is needed: she stims when she is excited.
Patterns
- stim when something happens
- stim to calm down
My brother stims by flapping his hands whenever he hears his favorite song.
She stims quietly during long meetings to stay focused.
Children should be allowed to stim as long as they are safe.
nouncountableslang
A stimulant drug or a quick boost of energy taken in tablet or injection form.
Grammar: Slang, mainly used in lists of medicines or drugs.
Patterns
- take a stim
- a dose of stims
Players in the game can use a stim to heal quickly.
The soldier was handed a stim to stay alert on the long march.
Doctors warned about the risks of taking stims without a prescription.
Word forms
| plural | stims |
|---|---|
| third person singular | stims |
| past tense | stimmed |
| past participle | stimmed |
| -ing form | stimming |
Common combinations
- visual stim
- Watching spinning lights is a visual stim for him.
- stim toy
- She keeps a stim toy in her pocket for noisy places.
- stim at home
- Many people feel freer to stim at home.
- vocal stim
- Humming is a gentle vocal stim.
- stimming behavior
- Teachers learned to recognize stimming behavior as self-regulation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fidget
- Fidget describes restless small movements that are often unconscious, while stim names a repeated action with a calming or focusing purpose.
- tic
- A tic is an involuntary sudden movement or sound, whereas a stim is generally something the person chooses or needs for comfort.
- stimulant
- Stimulant is the standard word for a drug that increases alertness, while stim in this sense is informal slang.
Word family
- stimming noun
- the act of doing repeated movements or sounds for self-regulation
- stimulate verb
- to make something more active or lively
- stimulation noun
- the act of encouraging activity or interest
- stimulus noun
- something that causes a reaction
- stimulant noun
- a substance that increases activity in the body
Commonly confused: stim or stem?
stim vs stem
Stem is the stalk of a plant or the main part of a word, and it has a different vowel sound and spelling from stim.
Practice
Which sentence uses stim in the sense of a self-soothing repeated movement?
Choose one answer.
Humming to cope with noise is a vocal stim. The first option uses the drug sense, and the others do not use the word in any real sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stim”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.